Exterior photo of JBJ's Nashville from Broadway

Using prefabrication to overcome challenging site logistics

Big Plan Holdings | JBJ's Nashville | Nashville, TN

Name: DPR Construction
Price range: $

Housing Jon Bon Jovi's honky tonk, the five-story, 34,000-sq.-ft. ground-up building features two outdoor rooftop decks, multiple stages and a full commercial kitchen. Located in the heart of Nashville’s Broadway Historic District, the new building needed to seamlessly blend into the iconic streetscape. This required DPR to construct the building directly against the public sidewalk on both 4th Avenue and Broadway and within inches of three historic buildings.

Partners

Big Plan Holdings | JBJ's Nashville

Unique

Solutions

With less than a foot of clearance between the new structure and the surrounding historic buildings, installing exterior panels in a traditional manner with a tower crane and trade partners completing the work from outside of the building was not feasible. The skin is built of prefabricated panels installed with an Upbrella track system. This system eliminated the need for a tower crane and didn't require swinging any materials or equipment above the adjacent historic buildings or public sidewalks. The system used a monorail with trolley cranes that circled the perimeter of the new building. The trolley crane then lifted the panels off of the delivery trucks and transported them with the monorail to their correct location on the building. Once at the correct location, the trolley crane lowered the panel into place and DPR's self-perform team secured the panel to the floor deck from inside the building. It was the first time this system was used in the United States. The team used Building Information Modeling (BIM) to plan how panels would be “flown” around the building—through the tight spaces—and installed.

Site

Logistics

The project team coordinated construction and deliveries to accommodate the needs of one of the nation's most recognizable tourist destinations. With approximately 16,000 pedestrians on Broadway every single day and the honky tonks operational from 10 am until 3 am, public safety was paramount. Our team used extensive wayfinding on public pathways for both pedestrians and vehicles. We also had to coordinate around public events, including numerous large concerts, NHL games, Rock N Roll Marathon and an IndyCar race.